A classic thriller remade by Hollywood legend Denzel Washington lands an imminent premiere on a new streaming platform. The action-packed 1987 book adaptation, Man on Fire, is set to debut soon via Hulu.
Hulu confirmed that the original Man on Fire will be available for streaming on Feb. 1. The Élie Chouraqui-helmed effort has largely been missing from the streaming world, only becoming available on the free streaming site Plex or via Hollywood Suite, while fans can also rent or purchase it via Amazon's Prime Video.
Related Director David Fincher Reveals Why Denzel Washington Wasn't Cast in Se7en
The actor admitted Se7en was one missed opportunity he has since regretted.
Based on the eponymous A.J. Quinnell novel, the original Man on Fire stars Scott Glenn, Joe Pesci, Jade Malle, Jonathan Pryce, Brooke Adams and Danny Aiello. Set in Italy, Man on Fire chronicles ex-CIA agent Christian Creasy (Glenn), who's looking for a new job,...
Hulu confirmed that the original Man on Fire will be available for streaming on Feb. 1. The Élie Chouraqui-helmed effort has largely been missing from the streaming world, only becoming available on the free streaming site Plex or via Hollywood Suite, while fans can also rent or purchase it via Amazon's Prime Video.
Related Director David Fincher Reveals Why Denzel Washington Wasn't Cast in Se7en
The actor admitted Se7en was one missed opportunity he has since regretted.
Based on the eponymous A.J. Quinnell novel, the original Man on Fire stars Scott Glenn, Joe Pesci, Jade Malle, Jonathan Pryce, Brooke Adams and Danny Aiello. Set in Italy, Man on Fire chronicles ex-CIA agent Christian Creasy (Glenn), who's looking for a new job,...
- 1/18/2025
- by Jodee Brown
- CBR
As Marty McFly once prophetically claimed after his game-changing appearance at 1955's Enchantment Under the Sea dance, "I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it." This phrase pretty perfectly sums up the phenomenon of reappraisal in the arts, especially cinema. Whether a film is truly something pioneering and ahead of its time, or whether it's just lost in the shuffle due to extenuating circumstances, the (relative) immortality of movies allows them to be periodically rediscovered and newly appreciated for what they are, once removed from the weight of expectation and other contemporary factors. This doesn't just happen to films that fly under the radar, either; even the most high-profile releases, movies featuring A-list megastars made by big name directors, can initially receive a tepid response only to become bonafide classics years, perhaps even decades, later. For examples of this, just take a...
- 10/14/2024
- by Bill Bria
- Slash Film
Adrien Brody on Winning the Oscar, Catching a Train with Wes Anderson, and Making Music With Popcorn
“The Pianist” and “King Kong” star Adrien Brody spoke at the Red Sea Film Festival Friday about a wide variety of creative pursuits, including making music from popcorn in the 1990s.
“I liked the sound of the kernels of popcorn hitting the aluminium lid of the pan and so I set my microphone up and recorded it and then I sampled it and put on some reverb,” he told the audience in Saudi Arabia. “It went pok-a-pok-a-pok.”
Something of a prodigy, he was cast as a lead in a TV movie “Home at Last” when he was only 15 and later became the youngest actor to win the best male lead Oscar.
Hailing from Queens, New York, the child of a celebrated photographer and a painter, Brody’s love for acting was kindled when he was enrolled by his mother in an acting school — the American Academy of Dramatic Arts — where she had been photographing.
“I liked the sound of the kernels of popcorn hitting the aluminium lid of the pan and so I set my microphone up and recorded it and then I sampled it and put on some reverb,” he told the audience in Saudi Arabia. “It went pok-a-pok-a-pok.”
Something of a prodigy, he was cast as a lead in a TV movie “Home at Last” when he was only 15 and later became the youngest actor to win the best male lead Oscar.
Hailing from Queens, New York, the child of a celebrated photographer and a painter, Brody’s love for acting was kindled when he was enrolled by his mother in an acting school — the American Academy of Dramatic Arts — where she had been photographing.
- 12/8/2023
- by John Bleasdale
- Variety Film + TV
A few weeks ago, Netflix announced it would make a TV adaptation of A. J. Quinnell’s Man on Fire, a novel which was famously turned into perhaps one of the definitive Denzel Washington movies, one which is also considered the late Tony Scott’s masterpiece. So what gives? Why improve on perfection? Could there possibly be a John Creasy that would be seen as an improvement on Denzel’s towering performance? But did you know that this movie wasn’t actually the first adaptation of Quinnell’s novel and that John Creasy’s adventures continued in book form despite his tragic end in Scott’s movie? In this episode of Revisited, we look back at one of the best action films of the 2000s and perhaps Denzel Washington’s most iconic role.
Flashback to the mid-eighties. Despite being about forty, Tony Scott was only just starting to move into features.
Flashback to the mid-eighties. Despite being about forty, Tony Scott was only just starting to move into features.
- 6/1/2023
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
A television series adaptation of Man on Fire is set to be released on Netflix. The original 1980 Philip Nicholson (as A. J. Quinnell) novel of the same name was famously adapted for the big screen with the 2004 Tony Scott-directed hit starring Denzel Washington in the lead role. The action-thriller centers on Creasy, an alcoholic ex-military bodyguard hired to protect a wealthy businessman's young daughter. When gangsters kidnap the child, Creasy will stop at nothing to bring her back alive. Man on Fire also received an earlier 1987 theatrical adaptation by director Élie Chouraqui with Scott Glenn as Creasy.
Via The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has ordered a Man on Fire television series adaptation. The upcoming show is based on Quinnell's first two novels featuring Creasy, specifically Man on Fire and The Perfect Kill, released in 1992. Kyle Killen writer and co-creator of Paramount+'s Halo television series will pen the show's eight episodes.
Via The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has ordered a Man on Fire television series adaptation. The upcoming show is based on Quinnell's first two novels featuring Creasy, specifically Man on Fire and The Perfect Kill, released in 1992. Kyle Killen writer and co-creator of Paramount+'s Halo television series will pen the show's eight episodes.
- 3/28/2023
- by Brandon Louis
- ScreenRant
A reputation for starring in straight-to-video action flops isn't usually a ticket to arthouse acclaim, but that's just how things have worked out for Christophe Lambert
Christophe Lambert cuts a distinctly American-in-Paris figure as he strolls, Blackberry in hand, to the table where his bottle of Coke Zero and pack of Marlboros are lying in wait. Against the marble- floored, chandelier-lit lobby of Paris' Hotel Crillon, his choice of dress – jeans, trainers and black sweatshirt rolled up to the elbows – seems even more defiantly un-French. Who needs chic when you've got Hollywood?
But, comfortingly familiar though the aura is, this is not the Lambert who became a star in Highlander in 1986, all tousled blond mane and piercingly blue eyes. His hair is now sleek, kempt and grey. He peers through spectacles – his myopia is so severe he often has to act without being able to see very much.
If the...
Christophe Lambert cuts a distinctly American-in-Paris figure as he strolls, Blackberry in hand, to the table where his bottle of Coke Zero and pack of Marlboros are lying in wait. Against the marble- floored, chandelier-lit lobby of Paris' Hotel Crillon, his choice of dress – jeans, trainers and black sweatshirt rolled up to the elbows – seems even more defiantly un-French. Who needs chic when you've got Hollywood?
But, comfortingly familiar though the aura is, this is not the Lambert who became a star in Highlander in 1986, all tousled blond mane and piercingly blue eyes. His hair is now sleek, kempt and grey. He peers through spectacles – his myopia is so severe he often has to act without being able to see very much.
If the...
- 6/17/2010
- by Lizzy Davies
- The Guardian - Film News
O Jerusalem
opens Wednesday, Oct. 24
With Mideast tensions raging, it seems surprising that it has taken so many years for a film version of the best-selling novel O Jerusalem, written by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, to appear.
Director Elie Chouraqui ("Harrison's Flowers") and co-writer Didier Lepecheur have compressed the sprawling novel about the founding of the state of Israel into a tight 100-minute movie that skims entertainingly along the surface without hitting many depths. The film is admirable in trying to be fair to the Israeli and Arab perspectives while lamenting the enmity that endures to this day.
To honor these dual perspectives, the film focuses on the relationship of a Jewish-American man and an Arab. Bobby Goldman (JJ Feild) is a soldier returning from combat duty in World War II who meets Said Chahine (Said Taghmaoui), an Arab student in New York. They strike up a fast friendship, which is tested when they travel to Palestine to join the battle for independence from England. They quickly find themselves on opposite sides of the growing conflict between Arabs and Jews over the country that both groups consider their homeland.
The film intercuts the personal stories of the men with momentous events on the world stage. Newsreel footage is used to mark the transitions, and such real historical figures as David Ben-Gurion (Ian Holm) and Golda Meir (Tovah Feldshuh, who already has played the part in her award-winning stage production, "Golda's Balcony") share the screen with the fictional Bobby and Said. Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci's widescreen cinematography thrusts us into the action with sweeping crowd scenes and a beautiful evocation of Jerusalem in a time of transition. (Much of the film actually was shot on the island of Rhodes.) The director brings immediacy to the battle scenes, including the infamous massacre at the Arab village of Deir Yassin. To its credit, the film recognizes atrocities committed on both sides.
Where the film falters is in trying to do justice to the personal stories. Taghmaoui gives an eloquent, deeply felt performance, and Feild also is appealing, though his British accent sometimes slips through. But the characterizations are stock, and the supporting characters -- including Said's more fanatical brother and Bobby's love interest, a concentration-camp survivor -- are barely sketched at all. While many prestige pictures this fall seem bloated and overlong, this is the rare film that seems Too Short.
As it rushes from cataclysm to catastrophe while skimming over the personal dramas, O Jerusalem often gives the impression that crucial scenes have been left on the cutting room floor. The film covers some of the same ground as Otto Preminger's 1960 epic Exodus, but Preminger had 213 minutes to interweave large-scale historical set pieces and intimate romantic moments.
O Jerusalem has the virtue of energy, but it suffers from superficiality, particularly with regard to the characterizations. This weakness carries over to the portrayal of the real-life figures. Holm and Feldshuh have too little screen time to make their historical icons into anything more than cardboard figures. Even with its flaws, the film finds many moving moments as it surveys the ravages of a perpetually divided country.
O JERUSALEM
Samuel Goldwyn Films
A Les Films de l'Instant, Cinegram, FIlms 18 Ltd., Titania Produzioni, G.G. Israel Studios Ltd. and France 2 Cinema co-production
Credits:
Director: Elie Chouraqui
Screenwriters: Elie Chouraqui, Didier Lepecheur
Based on the novel by: Dominique Lapierre, Larry Collins
Producers: Andre Djaoui, Elie Chouraqui, Jean-Charles Levy, Jean Frydman, Andy Grosch
Executive producer: David Korda
Director of photography: Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci
Production designer: Sue Booth
Music: Stephen Endelman
Co-producers: Jeff Geoffray, Walter Josten, Jeff Konvitz, Mark Damon, Marcus Schofer
Costume designer: Mimi Lempicka
Editor: Jacque Witta
Cast:
Bobby Goldman: JJ Feild
Said Chahine: Said Taghmaoui
Roni: Daniel Lundh
Jacob: Mel Raido
David Levin: Patrick Bruel
Hadassah: Maria Papas
David Ben-Gurion: Ian Holm
Golda Meir: Tova Feldshuh
Abdel Khader: Peter Polycarpou
Isaac Roth: Elie Chouraqui
Amin Chahine: Jamie Harding
Running time -- 100 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
With Mideast tensions raging, it seems surprising that it has taken so many years for a film version of the best-selling novel O Jerusalem, written by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, to appear.
Director Elie Chouraqui ("Harrison's Flowers") and co-writer Didier Lepecheur have compressed the sprawling novel about the founding of the state of Israel into a tight 100-minute movie that skims entertainingly along the surface without hitting many depths. The film is admirable in trying to be fair to the Israeli and Arab perspectives while lamenting the enmity that endures to this day.
To honor these dual perspectives, the film focuses on the relationship of a Jewish-American man and an Arab. Bobby Goldman (JJ Feild) is a soldier returning from combat duty in World War II who meets Said Chahine (Said Taghmaoui), an Arab student in New York. They strike up a fast friendship, which is tested when they travel to Palestine to join the battle for independence from England. They quickly find themselves on opposite sides of the growing conflict between Arabs and Jews over the country that both groups consider their homeland.
The film intercuts the personal stories of the men with momentous events on the world stage. Newsreel footage is used to mark the transitions, and such real historical figures as David Ben-Gurion (Ian Holm) and Golda Meir (Tovah Feldshuh, who already has played the part in her award-winning stage production, "Golda's Balcony") share the screen with the fictional Bobby and Said. Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci's widescreen cinematography thrusts us into the action with sweeping crowd scenes and a beautiful evocation of Jerusalem in a time of transition. (Much of the film actually was shot on the island of Rhodes.) The director brings immediacy to the battle scenes, including the infamous massacre at the Arab village of Deir Yassin. To its credit, the film recognizes atrocities committed on both sides.
Where the film falters is in trying to do justice to the personal stories. Taghmaoui gives an eloquent, deeply felt performance, and Feild also is appealing, though his British accent sometimes slips through. But the characterizations are stock, and the supporting characters -- including Said's more fanatical brother and Bobby's love interest, a concentration-camp survivor -- are barely sketched at all. While many prestige pictures this fall seem bloated and overlong, this is the rare film that seems Too Short.
As it rushes from cataclysm to catastrophe while skimming over the personal dramas, O Jerusalem often gives the impression that crucial scenes have been left on the cutting room floor. The film covers some of the same ground as Otto Preminger's 1960 epic Exodus, but Preminger had 213 minutes to interweave large-scale historical set pieces and intimate romantic moments.
O Jerusalem has the virtue of energy, but it suffers from superficiality, particularly with regard to the characterizations. This weakness carries over to the portrayal of the real-life figures. Holm and Feldshuh have too little screen time to make their historical icons into anything more than cardboard figures. Even with its flaws, the film finds many moving moments as it surveys the ravages of a perpetually divided country.
O JERUSALEM
Samuel Goldwyn Films
A Les Films de l'Instant, Cinegram, FIlms 18 Ltd., Titania Produzioni, G.G. Israel Studios Ltd. and France 2 Cinema co-production
Credits:
Director: Elie Chouraqui
Screenwriters: Elie Chouraqui, Didier Lepecheur
Based on the novel by: Dominique Lapierre, Larry Collins
Producers: Andre Djaoui, Elie Chouraqui, Jean-Charles Levy, Jean Frydman, Andy Grosch
Executive producer: David Korda
Director of photography: Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci
Production designer: Sue Booth
Music: Stephen Endelman
Co-producers: Jeff Geoffray, Walter Josten, Jeff Konvitz, Mark Damon, Marcus Schofer
Costume designer: Mimi Lempicka
Editor: Jacque Witta
Cast:
Bobby Goldman: JJ Feild
Said Chahine: Said Taghmaoui
Roni: Daniel Lundh
Jacob: Mel Raido
David Levin: Patrick Bruel
Hadassah: Maria Papas
David Ben-Gurion: Ian Holm
Golda Meir: Tova Feldshuh
Abdel Khader: Peter Polycarpou
Isaac Roth: Elie Chouraqui
Amin Chahine: Jamie Harding
Running time -- 100 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/24/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Man on Fire
Opens
April 21
Denzel Washington plays an avenging angel in "Man on Fire", a full-throttle, good-vs.-evil thriller about an ex-CIA agent bent on eliminating, one by one, a ruthless Mexican gang of kidnappers and dirty cops.
Everything is straightforward save for director Tony Scott's fussy style of hyperimages and flash editing, which he has developed in such similar melodramas as "Spy Game" and "Enemy of the State". Washington commands the screen with calm assurance, shares it well with his tiny co-star, Dakota Fanning, during the first half of the story and pretty much carries the marathon-length movie on his broad shoulders, as he is in nearly every scene.
At nearly 21⁄2 hours, exhibitors might lose a daily showing with "Man on Fire". But it won't matter much as the film looks primed to do excellent boxoffice, with Washington pulling in above-average numbers for a film that should appeal to men of all ages and a good many women as well.
"Man on Fire" is actually a second go at the novel of pseudonymous author A.J. Quinnell by producer Arnon Milchan, who shepherded to the screen a 1987 French⁄Italian production starring Scott Glenn and Joe Pesci and directed by Elie Chouraqui. This production, of course, is considerably amped by Scott and a top-flight crew, with much time spent on atmosphere, stunts, conflagrations and dramatic confrontations.
Washington plays one of those burnt-out cases so beloved by thriller writers. In this instance, he is John Creasy, a former CIA assassin who has run out of people to kill. The only remaining target is himself. Alcoholic and without purpose, he drifts into Mexico to visit old pal and fellow ex-agent Rayburn (Christopher Walken). Rayburn fixes him up with a job as bodyguard to 9-year-old Pita Ramos (Fanning), daughter of stressed-out Mexican industrialist Samuel (singing sensation Marc Anthony) and his anxious Yankee wife, Lisa (Radha Mitchell). The family's smooth attorney (Mickey Rourke) has insisted on hiring a bodyguard as abductions occur round-the-clock in Mexico.
(The portrait of the country and its citizens is about as bleak as any studio picture ever made, essentially portraying Mexico as a cesspool of crime and corruption reaching upward into the social elite. Whether accurate or not, the movie is not likely to make Vicente Fox's top 10 list.)
Brian Helgeland's script can't help but traffic in predictable plot developments. Yes, Pita breaks down Creasy's resistance to life, even getting him to smile again and act as her swimming coach. And yes, Pita gets abducted and the ransom drop goes awry -- crooks beating other crooks to the prize -- and all is lost.
But Creasy, despite being badly wounded, methodically takes on the entire gang, a bloody trail of reprisals that leads to top cop Fuentes (Jesus Ochoa) and "the Voice" (Gustavo Sanchez Parra), who ordered the kidnapping. In this, he has the aid of Mexico's only apparent honest citizens, police inspector Manzano (Italian star Giancarlo Giannini) and fearless journalist Mariana (Rachel Ticotin).
Scott heightens the tension with cinematographer Paul Cameron's nervous, pivoting camera moves, Christian Wagner's quick edits, sudden shifts in motion, color and a dramatic play of light and shadows. Harry Gregson-Williams' percussion-driven Latin jazz score greatly pushes the mood of high anxiety.
While on fire, Washington plays it cool. Whether a drunk or revenge-minded killer, he is always in control. Fanning gets snatched away, which leaves a hole in the story, but Giannini and Ticotin help fill the gap by playing a pair of good guys who nevertheless exploit each other.
The film is always watchable, and the confrontations contain undeniable edgy excitement. But even if this weren't a remake, it would be a remake. Hollywood filmmakers have fished these waters so thoroughly that it's virtually impossible to land a big catch.
MAN ON FIRE
Fox 2000 Pictures and Regency Enterprises present a New Regency/Scott Free production
Credits:
Director: Tony Scott
Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Tony Scott, Lucas Foster
Executive producers: Lance Hool, James W. Skotchdopole
Director of photography: Paul Cameron
Production designer: Benjamin Fernandez
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
Co-producer: Conrad Hool
Costume designer: Louise Frogley
Editor: Christian Wagner
Cast:
Creasy: Denzel Washington
Pita: Dakota Fanning
Samuel: Marc Anthony
Lisa: Radha Mitchell
Rayburn: Christopher Walken
Manzano: Giancarlo Giannini
Mariana: Rachel Ticotin
Fuentes: Jesus Ochoa
Jordan: Mickey Rourke
Running time -- 142 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
April 21
Denzel Washington plays an avenging angel in "Man on Fire", a full-throttle, good-vs.-evil thriller about an ex-CIA agent bent on eliminating, one by one, a ruthless Mexican gang of kidnappers and dirty cops.
Everything is straightforward save for director Tony Scott's fussy style of hyperimages and flash editing, which he has developed in such similar melodramas as "Spy Game" and "Enemy of the State". Washington commands the screen with calm assurance, shares it well with his tiny co-star, Dakota Fanning, during the first half of the story and pretty much carries the marathon-length movie on his broad shoulders, as he is in nearly every scene.
At nearly 21⁄2 hours, exhibitors might lose a daily showing with "Man on Fire". But it won't matter much as the film looks primed to do excellent boxoffice, with Washington pulling in above-average numbers for a film that should appeal to men of all ages and a good many women as well.
"Man on Fire" is actually a second go at the novel of pseudonymous author A.J. Quinnell by producer Arnon Milchan, who shepherded to the screen a 1987 French⁄Italian production starring Scott Glenn and Joe Pesci and directed by Elie Chouraqui. This production, of course, is considerably amped by Scott and a top-flight crew, with much time spent on atmosphere, stunts, conflagrations and dramatic confrontations.
Washington plays one of those burnt-out cases so beloved by thriller writers. In this instance, he is John Creasy, a former CIA assassin who has run out of people to kill. The only remaining target is himself. Alcoholic and without purpose, he drifts into Mexico to visit old pal and fellow ex-agent Rayburn (Christopher Walken). Rayburn fixes him up with a job as bodyguard to 9-year-old Pita Ramos (Fanning), daughter of stressed-out Mexican industrialist Samuel (singing sensation Marc Anthony) and his anxious Yankee wife, Lisa (Radha Mitchell). The family's smooth attorney (Mickey Rourke) has insisted on hiring a bodyguard as abductions occur round-the-clock in Mexico.
(The portrait of the country and its citizens is about as bleak as any studio picture ever made, essentially portraying Mexico as a cesspool of crime and corruption reaching upward into the social elite. Whether accurate or not, the movie is not likely to make Vicente Fox's top 10 list.)
Brian Helgeland's script can't help but traffic in predictable plot developments. Yes, Pita breaks down Creasy's resistance to life, even getting him to smile again and act as her swimming coach. And yes, Pita gets abducted and the ransom drop goes awry -- crooks beating other crooks to the prize -- and all is lost.
But Creasy, despite being badly wounded, methodically takes on the entire gang, a bloody trail of reprisals that leads to top cop Fuentes (Jesus Ochoa) and "the Voice" (Gustavo Sanchez Parra), who ordered the kidnapping. In this, he has the aid of Mexico's only apparent honest citizens, police inspector Manzano (Italian star Giancarlo Giannini) and fearless journalist Mariana (Rachel Ticotin).
Scott heightens the tension with cinematographer Paul Cameron's nervous, pivoting camera moves, Christian Wagner's quick edits, sudden shifts in motion, color and a dramatic play of light and shadows. Harry Gregson-Williams' percussion-driven Latin jazz score greatly pushes the mood of high anxiety.
While on fire, Washington plays it cool. Whether a drunk or revenge-minded killer, he is always in control. Fanning gets snatched away, which leaves a hole in the story, but Giannini and Ticotin help fill the gap by playing a pair of good guys who nevertheless exploit each other.
The film is always watchable, and the confrontations contain undeniable edgy excitement. But even if this weren't a remake, it would be a remake. Hollywood filmmakers have fished these waters so thoroughly that it's virtually impossible to land a big catch.
MAN ON FIRE
Fox 2000 Pictures and Regency Enterprises present a New Regency/Scott Free production
Credits:
Director: Tony Scott
Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Tony Scott, Lucas Foster
Executive producers: Lance Hool, James W. Skotchdopole
Director of photography: Paul Cameron
Production designer: Benjamin Fernandez
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
Co-producer: Conrad Hool
Costume designer: Louise Frogley
Editor: Christian Wagner
Cast:
Creasy: Denzel Washington
Pita: Dakota Fanning
Samuel: Marc Anthony
Lisa: Radha Mitchell
Rayburn: Christopher Walken
Manzano: Giancarlo Giannini
Mariana: Rachel Ticotin
Fuentes: Jesus Ochoa
Jordan: Mickey Rourke
Running time -- 142 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 7/9/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Man on Fire
Opens
April 21
Denzel Washington plays an avenging angel in "Man on Fire", a full-throttle, good-vs.-evil thriller about an ex-CIA agent bent on eliminating, one by one, a ruthless Mexican gang of kidnappers and dirty cops.
Everything is straightforward save for director Tony Scott's fussy style of hyperimages and flash editing, which he has developed in such similar melodramas as "Spy Game" and "Enemy of the State". Washington commands the screen with calm assurance, shares it well with his tiny co-star, Dakota Fanning, during the first half of the story and pretty much carries the marathon-length movie on his broad shoulders, as he is in nearly every scene.
At nearly 21⁄2 hours, exhibitors might lose a daily showing with "Man on Fire". But it won't matter much as the film looks primed to do excellent boxoffice, with Washington pulling in above-average numbers for a film that should appeal to men of all ages and a good many women as well.
"Man on Fire" is actually a second go at the novel of pseudonymous author A.J. Quinnell by producer Arnon Milchan, who shepherded to the screen a 1987 French⁄Italian production starring Scott Glenn and Joe Pesci and directed by Elie Chouraqui. This production, of course, is considerably amped by Scott and a top-flight crew, with much time spent on atmosphere, stunts, conflagrations and dramatic confrontations.
Washington plays one of those burnt-out cases so beloved by thriller writers. In this instance, he is John Creasy, a former CIA assassin who has run out of people to kill. The only remaining target is himself. Alcoholic and without purpose, he drifts into Mexico to visit old pal and fellow ex-agent Rayburn (Christopher Walken). Rayburn fixes him up with a job as bodyguard to 9-year-old Pita Ramos (Fanning), daughter of stressed-out Mexican industrialist Samuel (singing sensation Marc Anthony) and his anxious Yankee wife, Lisa (Radha Mitchell). The family's smooth attorney (Mickey Rourke) has insisted on hiring a bodyguard as abductions occur round-the-clock in Mexico.
(The portrait of the country and its citizens is about as bleak as any studio picture ever made, essentially portraying Mexico as a cesspool of crime and corruption reaching upward into the social elite. Whether accurate or not, the movie is not likely to make Vicente Fox's top 10 list.)
Brian Helgeland's script can't help but traffic in predictable plot developments. Yes, Pita breaks down Creasy's resistance to life, even getting him to smile again and act as her swimming coach. And yes, Pita gets abducted and the ransom drop goes awry -- crooks beating other crooks to the prize -- and all is lost.
But Creasy, despite being badly wounded, methodically takes on the entire gang, a bloody trail of reprisals that leads to top cop Fuentes (Jesus Ochoa) and "the Voice" (Gustavo Sanchez Parra), who ordered the kidnapping. In this, he has the aid of Mexico's only apparent honest citizens, police inspector Manzano (Italian star Giancarlo Giannini) and fearless journalist Mariana (Rachel Ticotin).
Scott heightens the tension with cinematographer Paul Cameron's nervous, pivoting camera moves, Christian Wagner's quick edits, sudden shifts in motion, color and a dramatic play of light and shadows. Harry Gregson-Williams' percussion-driven Latin jazz score greatly pushes the mood of high anxiety.
While on fire, Washington plays it cool. Whether a drunk or revenge-minded killer, he is always in control. Fanning gets snatched away, which leaves a hole in the story, but Giannini and Ticotin help fill the gap by playing a pair of good guys who nevertheless exploit each other.
The film is always watchable, and the confrontations contain undeniable edgy excitement. But even if this weren't a remake, it would be a remake. Hollywood filmmakers have fished these waters so thoroughly that it's virtually impossible to land a big catch.
MAN ON FIRE
Fox 2000 Pictures and Regency Enterprises present a New Regency/Scott Free production
Credits:
Director: Tony Scott
Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Tony Scott, Lucas Foster
Executive producers: Lance Hool, James W. Skotchdopole
Director of photography: Paul Cameron
Production designer: Benjamin Fernandez
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
Co-producer: Conrad Hool
Costume designer: Louise Frogley
Editor: Christian Wagner
Cast:
Creasy: Denzel Washington
Pita: Dakota Fanning
Samuel: Marc Anthony
Lisa: Radha Mitchell
Rayburn: Christopher Walken
Manzano: Giancarlo Giannini
Mariana: Rachel Ticotin
Fuentes: Jesus Ochoa
Jordan: Mickey Rourke
Running time -- 142 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
April 21
Denzel Washington plays an avenging angel in "Man on Fire", a full-throttle, good-vs.-evil thriller about an ex-CIA agent bent on eliminating, one by one, a ruthless Mexican gang of kidnappers and dirty cops.
Everything is straightforward save for director Tony Scott's fussy style of hyperimages and flash editing, which he has developed in such similar melodramas as "Spy Game" and "Enemy of the State". Washington commands the screen with calm assurance, shares it well with his tiny co-star, Dakota Fanning, during the first half of the story and pretty much carries the marathon-length movie on his broad shoulders, as he is in nearly every scene.
At nearly 21⁄2 hours, exhibitors might lose a daily showing with "Man on Fire". But it won't matter much as the film looks primed to do excellent boxoffice, with Washington pulling in above-average numbers for a film that should appeal to men of all ages and a good many women as well.
"Man on Fire" is actually a second go at the novel of pseudonymous author A.J. Quinnell by producer Arnon Milchan, who shepherded to the screen a 1987 French⁄Italian production starring Scott Glenn and Joe Pesci and directed by Elie Chouraqui. This production, of course, is considerably amped by Scott and a top-flight crew, with much time spent on atmosphere, stunts, conflagrations and dramatic confrontations.
Washington plays one of those burnt-out cases so beloved by thriller writers. In this instance, he is John Creasy, a former CIA assassin who has run out of people to kill. The only remaining target is himself. Alcoholic and without purpose, he drifts into Mexico to visit old pal and fellow ex-agent Rayburn (Christopher Walken). Rayburn fixes him up with a job as bodyguard to 9-year-old Pita Ramos (Fanning), daughter of stressed-out Mexican industrialist Samuel (singing sensation Marc Anthony) and his anxious Yankee wife, Lisa (Radha Mitchell). The family's smooth attorney (Mickey Rourke) has insisted on hiring a bodyguard as abductions occur round-the-clock in Mexico.
(The portrait of the country and its citizens is about as bleak as any studio picture ever made, essentially portraying Mexico as a cesspool of crime and corruption reaching upward into the social elite. Whether accurate or not, the movie is not likely to make Vicente Fox's top 10 list.)
Brian Helgeland's script can't help but traffic in predictable plot developments. Yes, Pita breaks down Creasy's resistance to life, even getting him to smile again and act as her swimming coach. And yes, Pita gets abducted and the ransom drop goes awry -- crooks beating other crooks to the prize -- and all is lost.
But Creasy, despite being badly wounded, methodically takes on the entire gang, a bloody trail of reprisals that leads to top cop Fuentes (Jesus Ochoa) and "the Voice" (Gustavo Sanchez Parra), who ordered the kidnapping. In this, he has the aid of Mexico's only apparent honest citizens, police inspector Manzano (Italian star Giancarlo Giannini) and fearless journalist Mariana (Rachel Ticotin).
Scott heightens the tension with cinematographer Paul Cameron's nervous, pivoting camera moves, Christian Wagner's quick edits, sudden shifts in motion, color and a dramatic play of light and shadows. Harry Gregson-Williams' percussion-driven Latin jazz score greatly pushes the mood of high anxiety.
While on fire, Washington plays it cool. Whether a drunk or revenge-minded killer, he is always in control. Fanning gets snatched away, which leaves a hole in the story, but Giannini and Ticotin help fill the gap by playing a pair of good guys who nevertheless exploit each other.
The film is always watchable, and the confrontations contain undeniable edgy excitement. But even if this weren't a remake, it would be a remake. Hollywood filmmakers have fished these waters so thoroughly that it's virtually impossible to land a big catch.
MAN ON FIRE
Fox 2000 Pictures and Regency Enterprises present a New Regency/Scott Free production
Credits:
Director: Tony Scott
Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Tony Scott, Lucas Foster
Executive producers: Lance Hool, James W. Skotchdopole
Director of photography: Paul Cameron
Production designer: Benjamin Fernandez
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
Co-producer: Conrad Hool
Costume designer: Louise Frogley
Editor: Christian Wagner
Cast:
Creasy: Denzel Washington
Pita: Dakota Fanning
Samuel: Marc Anthony
Lisa: Radha Mitchell
Rayburn: Christopher Walken
Manzano: Giancarlo Giannini
Mariana: Rachel Ticotin
Fuentes: Jesus Ochoa
Jordan: Mickey Rourke
Running time -- 142 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 4/21/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Harrison's Flowers
"Harrison's Flowers", a gripping account of one woman's desperate yet determined search for her photojournalist husband believed by all his colleagues to have died in the Croatian civil war, is made all the more compelling by the recent kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. While the fictional story is much different than the tragically real one, Pearl's death underscores the danger and horrors war journalists must endure. This film by French filmmaker Elie Chouraqui painstakingly recreates the hell that was Croatia, a grotesque, almost surreal killing field where lives are taken at whim and a journalist is treated with disdain.
Made more than two years ago and winding up its festival tour here in Santa Barbara, the film, to be released this month by Universal Focus, hits theaters at a propitious moment. Propelled by a thoroughly convincing performance by Andie MacDowell, in a role that finds her character performing highly unlikely deeds, "Harrison's Flowers" should do well with adult viewers in and possibly beyond art house venues.
MacDowell and David Strathairn play married journalists, both of whom work at Newsweek in New York. With two young children needing his attention, Strathairn's prize-winning photojournalist asks his boss (Alun Armstrong) to retire him from war coverage. However, one last assignment proves, fatefully, to be just that. Off to Croatia in 1991, before the world has ever heard of "ethnic cleansing," he disappears in a building that collapses and is presumed dead.
Because there is no body, MacDowell insists her husband is not dead. Despite the fact her children have lost their dad and, by her actions, may lose their mother as well, MacDowell sets off for Yugoslavia. The reason: She thinks she has seen her husband in news footage she has tape-recorded from TV.
She sneaks across the border from Austria. On her first day, a companion gets brutally slain and she would have been raped but combat prevents a soldier from finishing his attack. Rather fortuitously -- you don't want to examine this coincidence too closely -- she is discovered by a group of fellow journalists. Half dead, she nevertheless convinces two colleagues of her husband, a hot-headed American (Adrien Brody) and an Irish veteran (Brendan Gleeson), to help her through a terrifying human hell to a hospital where she believes she will find her husband.
Events move swiftly along with all the characters in constant jeopardy. As with such current war films as "We Were Soldiers" and "Black Hawk Down", Chouraqui achieves a documentarylike reality in his combat scenes, only in this instance, a militia is at war with its own population.
The script by Chouraqui, Didier Le Pecheur, Isabel Ellsen and Michael Katims never fully motivates the two men's decision to help the ruthlessly single-minded MacDowell. Indeed, Brody didn't even get along with her husband. He does mutter something about always wanting to be a Boy Scout. And Gleeson simply declares he doesn't want his friendly rival to get a shot that he doesn't have.
The movie undergoes a curious shift in point of view or, to be accurate, in narrative strategy about three-quarters of the way through when a New York colleague of her husband's (Elias Koteas) mysteriously materializes in the war zone. At this point, his voice-over narration begins to fill in the gaps. But this is a voice you haven't heard before, and it strikes an odd note, smacking of a last-minute decision made in postproduction.
Top marks to go cinematographer Nicola Pecorini and production designer Giantito Burchiellaro for evoking the dark, smoky war zone, extending through villages and a nightmarish countryside, all within a 90-mile radius of Prague. Even the Newsweek magazine newsroom and the family's New Jersey home were created in the Czech Republic.
HARRISON'S FLOWERS
Universal Focus
7 Films Cinema/StudioCanal/France 2 Cinema
with the participation of Canal Plus
Producer/director: Elie Chouraqui
Writers: Elie Chouraqui, Didier Le Pecheur, Isabel Ellsen, Michael Katims
Director of photography: Nicola Pecorini
Production designer: Giantito Burchiellaro
Music: Cliff Eidelman
Editor: Jacques Witta
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sarah Lloyd: Andie MacDowell
Yeager: Elias Koteas
Stevenson: Brendan Gleeson
Kyle: Adrien Brody
Harrison Lloyd: David Strathairn
Samuel Brubeck: Alun Armstrong
Running time -- 122 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Made more than two years ago and winding up its festival tour here in Santa Barbara, the film, to be released this month by Universal Focus, hits theaters at a propitious moment. Propelled by a thoroughly convincing performance by Andie MacDowell, in a role that finds her character performing highly unlikely deeds, "Harrison's Flowers" should do well with adult viewers in and possibly beyond art house venues.
MacDowell and David Strathairn play married journalists, both of whom work at Newsweek in New York. With two young children needing his attention, Strathairn's prize-winning photojournalist asks his boss (Alun Armstrong) to retire him from war coverage. However, one last assignment proves, fatefully, to be just that. Off to Croatia in 1991, before the world has ever heard of "ethnic cleansing," he disappears in a building that collapses and is presumed dead.
Because there is no body, MacDowell insists her husband is not dead. Despite the fact her children have lost their dad and, by her actions, may lose their mother as well, MacDowell sets off for Yugoslavia. The reason: She thinks she has seen her husband in news footage she has tape-recorded from TV.
She sneaks across the border from Austria. On her first day, a companion gets brutally slain and she would have been raped but combat prevents a soldier from finishing his attack. Rather fortuitously -- you don't want to examine this coincidence too closely -- she is discovered by a group of fellow journalists. Half dead, she nevertheless convinces two colleagues of her husband, a hot-headed American (Adrien Brody) and an Irish veteran (Brendan Gleeson), to help her through a terrifying human hell to a hospital where she believes she will find her husband.
Events move swiftly along with all the characters in constant jeopardy. As with such current war films as "We Were Soldiers" and "Black Hawk Down", Chouraqui achieves a documentarylike reality in his combat scenes, only in this instance, a militia is at war with its own population.
The script by Chouraqui, Didier Le Pecheur, Isabel Ellsen and Michael Katims never fully motivates the two men's decision to help the ruthlessly single-minded MacDowell. Indeed, Brody didn't even get along with her husband. He does mutter something about always wanting to be a Boy Scout. And Gleeson simply declares he doesn't want his friendly rival to get a shot that he doesn't have.
The movie undergoes a curious shift in point of view or, to be accurate, in narrative strategy about three-quarters of the way through when a New York colleague of her husband's (Elias Koteas) mysteriously materializes in the war zone. At this point, his voice-over narration begins to fill in the gaps. But this is a voice you haven't heard before, and it strikes an odd note, smacking of a last-minute decision made in postproduction.
Top marks to go cinematographer Nicola Pecorini and production designer Giantito Burchiellaro for evoking the dark, smoky war zone, extending through villages and a nightmarish countryside, all within a 90-mile radius of Prague. Even the Newsweek magazine newsroom and the family's New Jersey home were created in the Czech Republic.
HARRISON'S FLOWERS
Universal Focus
7 Films Cinema/StudioCanal/France 2 Cinema
with the participation of Canal Plus
Producer/director: Elie Chouraqui
Writers: Elie Chouraqui, Didier Le Pecheur, Isabel Ellsen, Michael Katims
Director of photography: Nicola Pecorini
Production designer: Giantito Burchiellaro
Music: Cliff Eidelman
Editor: Jacques Witta
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sarah Lloyd: Andie MacDowell
Yeager: Elias Koteas
Stevenson: Brendan Gleeson
Kyle: Adrien Brody
Harrison Lloyd: David Strathairn
Samuel Brubeck: Alun Armstrong
Running time -- 122 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 3/4/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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